LHC Physics Center

What I will be working on:

My research focuses on understanding rare Higgs Boson processes, including its self-interaction, and developing precision time-of-flight instrumentation for particle physics.

Measuring the Higgs self-coupling through double Higgs production at the LHC helps test the electro-weak vacuum’s stability and explore potential new physics.

As an LPC DR, I am focusing on the Run 3 search for HH → bbγγ, one of the most sensitive channels to the self-coupling due to its clean di-photon signature. To improve this Run 3 analysis, I'm incorporating a boosted category using the ParticleNet tagger and developing a machine learning algorithm to better discriminate between signal and background.

Observing the HH process at the HL-LHC requires both new analysis techniques and updated detector technology, like the Endcap Timing Layer (ETL), which provides precise time-of-flight information (~30-50 ps per track). I will lead system tests and QA/QC for ETL modules at FNAL. Going beyond the HL-LHC, I'm also developing 4D tracking solutions for future particle colliders.

My role in CMS past and present:

I began working with CMS in 2016 as an undergraduate in India, where I conducted a search for vector-like top quarks in boosted topologies using the 2016 dataset.

During my PhD at Caltech (2017-2022), I contributed to the Run 2 H→μμ and boosted HH→4b analyses, optimized sensor geometry, and tested the thermal properties of modules for the CMS Barrel Timing Layer (BTL) upgrade. I also performedHCAL calibrations on the 2018 pp collision data and served as CMS Offline Run Manager for a few months in 2018.

After joining Fermilab as a postdoc in 2022, I have focused on the Run 2 HH combination analysis, which covers both SM results and EFT interpretations, and is expected to be published by the end of 2024. Additionally, I have led test beam campaigns at FNAL, DESY, and CERN, for ETL studies and 4D tracking solutions for future colliders.

As the Combine co-contact for the Higgs group (2024 - ), I oversee the validation of statistical interpretation techniques used in all Higgs analyses.